Does anyone do a 2 pistol practice drill?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

ColeK

Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
309
Location
Mississippi
I’m not talking about drawing 2 pistols and firing away.
I’m talking about a second pistol rather than reloading.
Years ago some my shooting buddies and I used to shoot an informal combat pistol course. The only two rules, (1) very station timed and the fastest over all time won; (2) you had to use centerfire pistol chamber for a .380 or larger.
What we found was that we were faster using 2 pistols rather then reload.
We ran the course strong side first; then we ran it weak side.
Our group broke up years ago but I still run this drill.

Does anyone else do this, or am I just odd.
 
Isn't that called a New York reload?
I might actually try doing that with first my Glock and then my LCR on the next range trip.

Thanks for the idea. 8)
 
I have done two gun shooting with Colt 1911A1 .45's, from shoulder holsters (a rig patterned after Bruce Willis's in "Last Man Standing"). First thing I learned was that the brain starts to resent using both sides at the same time. My weak hand wanted to shoot towards my strong side a bit, always putting my shots over too far with the weak hand. That meant consciously compensating by pushing the weak hand "out" a ways to get hits from the weak side gun. I can almost point shoot with my strong hand, and concentrate more on the weak hand to bring it on target. It is pretty impressive when you can dump all shots on a silhouette with both guns at 7-10 yards. Further, and you have to learn all over again, as it becomes muscle memory and lots of practice. I have double mag changes down, and I may try to get a video of the double mag change done sometime. Not as fast as Leatham and those guys, but what the hell, it's fun just the same. No better way to dump 100 to 300 rounds in a session.
DSC05449.jpg
[/IMG]
 
I have a close friend who carries a pair of Colt snubs, one strong side on the belt, one in a shoulder rig.

I've seen him shoot a stage or two at IDPA practice that way. He's a heck of a lot faster with the NY reload than he is with speedloaders, for sure.

He's also very discreet and quite caught our volunteer SO for the evening more than a little off-guard when the second revolver appeared! ;)

I'd venture to say he might even want to put in a few words of his own on the matter...?
 
Does cap and ball revolvers count? If so...

Guess I would have to answer yes.
 
Yes

I have advocated this very sort of practice on this forum in the past. I almost always have a Ruger LCP in my left front pocket along with my carry gun on my right hip. The idea is that should my primary gun go down, I can draw and fire my backup while retaining my primary. I practice drawing and firing my primary then, as in a gun down situation, drawing and firing my backup. I even try incorporating movement while firing the backup as I would if I wanted to get to cover and get the primary back up. I am planning on having a holster made for my LCP with a 1911 mag in the front to be worn on my left hip. Having shot Duelist in CAS matches for a number of years really helped with this.
 
I work on transitioning from my duty gun to my BUG, from my patrol rifle to my handgun and vice versa, not so much for reloads but in case of a failure.
 
I have a close friend who carries a pair of Colt snubs, one strong side on the belt, one in a shoulder rig.

I've seen him shoot a stage or two at IDPA practice that way. He's a heck of a lot faster with the NY reload than he is with speedloaders, for sure.

He's also very discreet and quite caught our volunteer SO for the evening more than a little off-guard when the second revolver appeared!
Click to expand...

I bet! Especially since you can’t use shoulder, cross draw or SOB rigs in IDPA and for the RO to not know he had a second firearm (also not legal) would have meant that it would have had to been already loaded before he stepped up to shoot (also not legal).

We have a match or two every year that we use a primary and BUG but we never have a draw start for the BUG as many use pocket carry.
 
jmorris,

Of course, of course. This was a practice evening involving a small group of participants (both IDPA competitors and others) all very well known to each other.

I would never allow that in one of my matches, even for said friend -- and he wouldn't ask.

We do run BUG side matches occasionally as well and I can't recall one where we allowed any but low-ready starts. ...scratch that... We did start one stage with the gun on a piece of rug at your feet to simulate an ankle holster draw.

There are times that the game rules are a bit limiting, but the compromise is worth it to keep things fair and safe.
 
That is what killed IDPA and many other shooting challenges for myself and many of my friends. The events got so saturated with rules, regs, "Simon says", and well-intentioned-but-power hungry/authority-obsessed/pseudo-expert range officers that they just weren't fun anymore. We moved to safety-conscious, but informal practices, and have never looked back. Our society is (over) regulated enough. Just call the range "hot", consider all guns loaded, and act accordingly. Why bring the poorer practices of government to your recreational functions?
 
What we found was that we were faster using 2 pistols rather then reload.
Click to expand...
I can't imagine that, unless you just throw the first gun on the ground when it runs dry.

It has to be slower to put one gun back in a holster and draw a second one then just keep slamming mags in the first gun.

rc
 
It has to be slower to put one gun back in a holster and draw a second one then just keep slamming mags in the first gun.
Click to expand...

Think revolver, where the practice started.

With autos I'd imagine you're right, assuming you're equally fast with the reload as with the draw. Unless you're going to drop your empty gun ... and that's going to make for EXPENSIVE practice, even if it might fly in a gun fight ... you've got to take the time to put that gun somewhere.
 
I'd imagine I'm right with revolvers too if you use one taking moon-clipped ammo.

I have a 625-6 S&W .45 ACP that even I can keep running faster then I could holster it and draw another loaded one.

And I sure ain't no Jerry Miculek either!

rc
 
I've done a similar drill before, where i have fired my G19 and then drew my 638 from an ankle rig. With practice and muscle memory i would shift my Glock to my right hand (I'm a southpaw), and then draw the .38.

Continue to drill this way but with a G26 followed by a LCP in the summer time.
 
When I started I used a Model 10 and a Model 36.

One object of the drills was to help us get use to drawing and firing with our left hands.

I’ve also used other combinations of pistols including semi-autos.
 
yep that is called the new york reload. or a transition to a bug. I tried that out running my primary ccw, and a bug and transitioned to the bug several times while attending Tactical Response Advanced Fighting Pistol. It worked out well, and James has even said on many occasions that after that class many students start carrying 2 guns.
 
Dear ColeK,

After practicing quite a bit, I can reload my primary revolver with a speedloader in 4-6 seconds, but can draw a second revolver, while re-holstering the first, in under 2 seconds.

YMMV

LBS
 
...unless you just throw the first gun on the ground when it runs dry.
Click to expand...

That's how I'd do it. Of course, I'm not going to practice with my $500+ handguns, but I might pick up a couple of Asp training replicas...

R
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top